Razaaq Adoti's Afrofuturist Sci-Fi Feature 'Base Human' Sets September 2026 Los Angeles Shoot

A bold and timely Afrofuturist science fiction feature is moving through pre-production with a confirmed Los Angeles shoot window, and working professionals across a range of departments should be paying close attention. "Base Human," written, directed, and produced by British-Ghanaian actor and filmmaker Razaaq Adoti, is currently in casting and pre-production ahead of a principal photography window of September 14 through September 26, 2026. The project is described as a high-concept sci-fi thriller set in 2093, when radioactive devastation has rendered Earth's northern and southern hemispheres uninhabitable, forcing the world's surviving human populations to seek refuge in Africa while the continent itself charts a course beyond the planet entirely. It is a compact but ambitious shoot, and the production appears to be building its team now.

Razaaq Adoti is best known to general audiences as a performer, with credits including "Black Hawk Down" and "Doom," but "Base Human" marks a significant statement of intent as a writer-director, channeling a distinctly personal and political vision into a genre framework. The film's logline alone signals that Adoti is not interested in conventional science fiction tropes. The story weaves together themes of overpopulation, human-computer neural integration, species classification, race, love, and interplanetary migration, all grounded in what the production describes as an unfamiliar landscape told through an unfamiliar voice. For crew considering this project, that framing matters: this is a filmmaker with something specific to say, and the production will likely attract collaborators who share that creative seriousness.

Attached as Casting Director and Associate Producer is Natasha Ward-Shaw, CSA, whose dual credit signals an active and producer-level role in shaping the project's talent. Ward-Shaw's involvement at this stage, while the project is still in casting, is directly relevant to agents and talent managers who should be tracking this listing. Her CSA designation confirms she is a member of the Casting Society of America, and her associate producer title suggests she is embedded in the production's creative leadership rather than serving in a purely transactional capacity. Actors and their representatives will want to make contact sooner rather than later, given that principal photography is roughly fourteen months out and casting decisions for a project of this ambition are rarely rushed.

At this stage, details about the production company structure, financing, and distribution are not yet publicly confirmed, which is not unusual for a filmmaker-driven independent feature at this phase of development. What is clear is that "Base Human" is positioning itself as a prestige independent sci-fi feature with serious thematic weight. Projects in this genre and budget tier often attract international co-production interest and festival strategy, particularly given the film's Afrofuturist framework, a subgenre that has gained considerable critical and commercial traction following the global success of productions like "Black Panther" and the continued visibility of African and diaspora filmmakers on the international stage. Any distribution or financing news will significantly sharpen the picture of this production's scale and resources.

Principal photography is scheduled to take place in Los Angeles, California, over a tight thirteen-day window from September 14 to September 26, 2026. Los Angeles is a logical base for a production of this type: the city offers an extraordinarily deep local crew base across every department, a robust infrastructure of stage facilities and practical locations, and no shortage of VFX and post-production pipelines for a project that will almost certainly require significant visual effects work. The thirteen-day shoot is notably compressed for a feature with this kind of world-building ambition, which suggests the production will rely heavily on production design, visual effects, and smart location strategy to realize the 2093 setting without a sprawling shooting schedule. That compression also means department heads will need to be highly efficient and pre-planned, making experienced department heads especially valuable here. California's film tax credit program, administered through the California Film Commission, remains competitive for independent features and may factor into the Los Angeles location decision.

From a crew-needs perspective, "Base Human" is a genre production with a science fiction and thriller classification, set in a future-world environment that will demand creative and resourceful work from the art department, costume department, and VFX team. The Afrofuturist aesthetic, rooted in African visual traditions reimagined through a speculative lens, will give the production designer and costume designer in particular meaningful creative latitude and substantial responsibility. The neural-computer integration storyline and the post-apocalyptic world-building suggest additional demands on the props and set decoration teams. Given the compressed production window and the likely complexity of the visual environment, pre-production planning will be intensive, and crew members coming aboard early will have the most influence on the final product. Union status has not been confirmed, but productions of this caliber shooting in Los Angeles frequently operate under SAG-AFTRA agreements at minimum, and crew should inquire directly about guild affiliations when reaching out.

With filming still over a year away but casting and pre-production already underway, "Base Human" is at exactly the stage where the right crew call can make a career connection that pays off for years. ProductionList.com carries the full listing for this production, including production contacts, office information, and crew details as they are confirmed. If you are a department head, a specialist in sci-fi or Afrofuturist production design, or a crew professional looking to get in early on a filmmaker-driven project with genuine artistic ambition, this is the listing to bookmark and check regularly as the team takes shape over the coming months.

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